Wataniya Palestine counts 70,000 subs after a month of activity

Palestine’s second mobile operator, Wataniya Palestine has added more than 70,000 subscribers since launching commercial services at the end of October, according to Qtel Group CEO, Nasser Marafih.

“The market traction is good and we expect further growth to be strong,” Marafih told Comm. in a wide-ranging interview. Qtel Group is the parent company of Wataniya.

The incumbent operator in Palestine is Jawwal and according to the Mobile World subscriber database, the operator is estimated to have just over one million subscribers. Within the Palestinian Territories though, some 1.7 million mobile phones are in use and this is due to the Israeli networks “leaking” over the borders and providing service to Palestinians.

Wataniya Palestine is 40 per cent owned by Wataniya International. Thirty per cent will be offered to the Palestine Investment Fund (PIF) and 30 per cent is owned by the general public through an IPO.

The operator began commercial operations with 40,000 users who had registered during a promotional campaign launched in September.